At Cornerstone, we are building a bridge between reading and writing. We focus on reading strategies that help students develop a mastery of decoding and comprehension skills. By using a systematic approach to phonics, our students develop word knowledge which moves them toward conventional spelling. Students are also taught the process or craft of writing. From developing ideas to celebrating and publishing their final drafts, they encounter new lenses to explore their awareness of the world and a passion for writing.  As of Fall 2012, all of our lower school teachers will be trained in the Orton-Gillingham method (a multi-sensory educational approach to language arts).

Gail Davis, our Lower School writing specialist, has over thirty years of experience and has earned numerous teaching awards. She has spent many years at Cornerstone perfecting a writing program that continues to astound her peers and students. Ms. Davis approaches teaching writing through coaching students, nurturing their hard work, celebrating their creativity, all the while taking them step-by-step through a very complex process that includes organization, diction, selection of voice, and such literary skills as syntax and convention. She offers, “We actually think of our writing as talking on paper.”

Ms. Davis contends that children are practically built to write, with the earliest evidence appearing on the walls and furniture of our houses via crayons and parents’ misplaced permanent markers. Using writing labs, small groups of students in Cornerstone’s earliest grades share their ideas, provide helpful feedback, and encourage each other toward creative expression. “Our revision process is seen as an opportunity to stretch and grow, not as a time to fix mistakes” Davis purports. “You’ve never seen a child sit taller than when he is sitting in the author’s chair.”
 
In the Fall of 2012, we are adding a middle school writing teacher to complement our lower school writing program and solidify our foothold as one of the leaders among schools in our area in creating great readers and writers.